Kīlauea Update, Sunday, September 2, 2018. Hmmmmm. Have we learned anything? What a wonder! Brilliant clear blue skies, gentle winds, chilly crisp mornings, some very restful sleeps…everything seems back to normal. How spectacular!

Is it? Normal? The County asks for $800 million to repave roads, build housing, etc etc etc. The Park will reopen sooner rather than later. Last date Iʻve heard for that is September 22.

Am I the only one who wonders: Really??? I admire the certainty with which plans proceed. The sense that everything will be fine, and weʻll simply proceed to make it all normal again. And I shake my head.

A friend asked the other day: How are you? I thought for a moment and said: Iʻm frickin exhausted. Exhausted. The Three Months of earthquakes up here. The tension. Will it end? When will it end? Will it get worse? How much worse? The 26 inches of rain at my hale…just over a week ago? When do we get to enjoy the blue skies of memory? Then it turned chill a few days ago. Added a quilt to the bed. And I wondered how come itʻs so cold? Then I remembered: The Three Months: May, June, July. Consumed by it all. Timeless on and on-ness. Wake up, think, write, attempt to live “normally”, try to sleep, repeat, repeat, repeat. And now itʻs September. Thereʻs supposed to be a crispness to the morning air.

And now, at 10:11 am, I just read the HVO Update: Late last evening, F8 was spattering, and pele slowly covered the floor of the lua, an area of about 210ʻ x 45ʻ. Pelehonuamea is still active. I sometimes sound like a broken record, I know… Read, Learn, Try Understand. Reports for your edification have been linked here again and again.

Pele will not be pau, extinguished, in our lifetimes. She has been active for untold generations, and her presence shall remain till long long after weʻre gone. Why do we seem to have such a difficult time understanding that??? This is HER place. We are in the way. we build our roads, our buildings, our infrastructure. They are inundated, and we build anew. And Anew and Again and Again… Please, someone, explain to me why? Are we so arrogant to think that This Time weʻll win??? Weʻll just spend more money and more money, and re-do everything.

Remember that word Malolo. A pause, a rest… Tomorrow makes ONE MONTH since the pause began. We have seen history-making, historic, life-changing, stupefying (thereʻs that word again!), befuddling, perplexing, devastating, heartwrenching change. In three months. The Three Months. You can go look up the stats. I shanʻt repeat them. Please:

be outside…pay attention noho i waho…a maliu

please? At least try and realize. SHE is in charge. We are not. I donʻt know how else to put it. We need more tourists, we need to market better, we need to collect money, we need to make money. Thatʻs what HTA says, thatʻs what Business says. Are we so clueless that no one pays attention to what Pelehonuamea says?

I am often criticized by some for always complaining, for being too critical. All I want is for people to open their eyes, their hearts, their minds, and to try to see from a different perspective. And to be correct in spelling and pronunciation (always the proofreader and editor).

I would love, as a friend said, for people to be infected. I want everyone to be infected with a virus. The virus of Aloha. Who said viruses always have to be detrimental? Become infected with aloha. Some of us are. Perhaps many of us are. The aloha that engenders aloha ʻāina. That love and caring for the land, all of it, as we would love and care for a beloved and cherished family member. Not the aloha of slogans and ads and trite commercialism. Not that kind.

The kind of aloha and aloha ʻāina that I feel that makes me weep when I experience change and the loss that entails. I weep for that which is lost, while knowing that Iʻll come to have aloha for the new faces in our midst. For the new beaches, the new pali, the different colors and layers and…all that. We shall come to know and adore them too.

Down at Pohoiki, the sandbar has morphed into a beach. Pohoiki Black Sand Beach. From HVO on August 31:

I sure hope that the kumu niu, the coconut trees, are able to grow fresh fronds. And as a bonus there appear to be at least two ponds for keiki and kupuna.

Up at Kaluapele, a new drone video from HVO, shot on August 26, 2018. A bit dizzying, so Iʻve also included a few still screenshots:

View toward east. Orangish Puʻupuaʻi at Kīlauea Iki at top left. Maunaulu on horizon at top right. Center right is the grey September 1982 Lava Flow. Multicolored pali revealed themselves during incremental collapses of the floor of Kaluapele during 62 lūʻōniu (collapse-explosions) between May 16 and August 2. Colors result from weathering of lava by heat and gases, and deposition of minerals by steam.

View toward Maunaloa, Kapāpala Ranch barely visible at top. A section of road can be seen on the slumped kaulu (ledge). The Halemaʻumaʻu Parking Lot was in this are.

From the other direction, view more or less east, section of road also visible on slumped kaulu.

And yes, these blogs will be irregularly posted. When Iʻm inclined, or when Something happens…please stay tuned.